Wham! The other outtakes from the “Last Christmas” single are even more disturbing. (Contributed Image)
Happy Dec. 1. I love Wham! I own “Make It Big” on cassette and CD. I once forced my friend to dress up like George Michael from the “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” video for a Halloween video for PE.com. (Yes, I played the part of Andrew Ridgeley. And we had “Choose Life” shirts that I made.)
Why am I rambling about Wham!, you ask? Well, it’s Dec. 1 and now I feel it’s acceptable to write about Christmas music, although our Temecula columnist John Hunneman pointed out that everyone’s already been inundated with the music since last month. Also my obsession with Wham! explains the most amazing photo ever, featured above, the cover of the single version of “Last Christmas.”
I love “Last Christmas.” I love the ridiculous video; I love that it’s ridiculously long; I love the synthesizer riff; I love that the words repeat over and over. But most of all, I love the raw emotion of George Michael when he sings about how his heart was given away on Dec. 26, especially that last “A man undercover but you tore me apaaaaaart.”
May my Charming Husband not murder me if they ever release this for “Rock Band.” (He’s been dealing with enough since I decided to download “Call Me Maybe” and climb ever higher on the leaderboards since Tuesday).
I also love more than Wham!’s holiday hit. “Careless Whisper”? Best saxophone solo ever (even edging out Duran Duran’s “Rio”). “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”? Greatest goofy ’80s song. “Everything She Wants,” “Credit Card Baby,” turn them all up.
But the one song from Wham! I really want to be done for “Rock Band” is “Freedom,” and I’m not talking about the George Michael solo megahit that came out years later. Stick with the video as they talk about going to China in the beginning.
You can address all letters of complaint in my music taste or wild support in the comments below.